This is a memoir by British forensic pathologist Sue Black. It's a mix of one woman's memories of growing up in Scotland and of how she decided first on studying anatomy and then becoming a pathologist, and of some of the cases she worked on, both solved and unsolved. The heart of the memoir centers on her time working in Kosovo to help bring the perpetrators of massacres to justice and help find the identities of the dead for surviving family members. It's grim and exacting work done under very difficult conditions and it's clear that Black thrived in that environment, able to use her extensive knowledge to its fullest. When it comes to describing the cases she's worked on, this book is fascinating.

Black is not a writer and her stated purpose for writing this book is to leave her grandchildren with a record of her memories, which accounts for the odd mix of family stories, childhood memories and descriptions of how she was able to discover causes of death and/or give identity to badly damaged corpses. While I was far more interested in her professional life, her memories of childhood were were charming in a low key way and it's impossible not to admire a grandmother who intersperses her more ordinary memories with a description of how her beloved uncle died face first in the Sunday soup. ( )

Death isn’t a what if, it’s a when. Sue Black talks life, death and science with a little humor and lots of humanity. In this part memoir, part anatomy book, she shares her experiences studying human remains and investigating mass fatalities, as well as how her experiences have shaped her view on humanity and mortality. Her book made me realize that I couldn’t do what she does, and I’m thankful for those who can. Also, donate your body to science. ( )

* I would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to review this book. *

Sue Black is one of the UK's leading forensic anthropologists. Her area of expertise is identifying people from their mortal remains. In this book she describes her work, its challenges and her philosophy about death.

At the outset, Black talks about the fact that death is an inevitable part of life, and discusses the significance that people place on a good death and on the ultimate disposition of their remains.

She then segues into how she got started as an anatomist and the empathy she learned towards the dead through her dissecting activities. This sensitivity towards their memory and towards that of their families has clearly been a cornerstone of her work.

Perhaps the most gripping parts of the book are when Black describes her work identifying remains as part of war crimes investigations in Kosovo, and then in Thailand identifying the victims of the tsunami there. There is some heartbreaking stuff here, but it is also intensely interesting throughout. ( )

Interesting stories about her work and life, by a Scottish forensic anthropologist. Very funny in spots, educational in others. ( )

I'm very over-emotional around the subject of death, so in recent years I've been pulling up my big girl pants and doing more reading around the subject in the hope that this helps. So far it's had zero effect, but I'm remaining positive, and learning lots of interesting things along the way.

Professor Dame Sue Black is one of the world's leading forensic pathologists (I'm not sure if that's a fact or her publisher's spin - I like to think the former), clearly not a job that the majority of the population could stomach but a fascinating one nonetheless.

While Black just pipped Dr. Richard Shepherd to the publishing post on this type of forensic pathology book for the masses (he wrote the equally fascinating Unnatural Causes), both authors took different approaches to their writing on their rather gruesome careers. Shepherd's book focuses on high-profile cases that he's been involved with and how he went about establishing the cause of death, interspersed with personal reflections on how his job detrimentally affected his own family life and marriage. Black's book is more a miss-mash of genres; partly a science overview on a grizzly subject (yet one that comes to us all), partly a memoir on her career and partly reflections on death itself (which is particularly interesting given the non-emotional approach she must bring to her day-to-day job). If the two books were TV shows, Shepherd's book would be more Channel 4 sensationalist reality TV whereas Black's would be a BBC Two science show (in fact I believe they both have actually done independent TV shows that probably don't fall too far from this).

This book by Black was fantastic. Superbly well written, it was informative yet extremely accessible to those from a non-science background and gripped me from the get-go, covering so many different aspects of death. Black brings us behind the scenes of university anatomy classes, providing some insight into why people choose to donate their bodies to medical science (as well as what actually happens when they do) and what it's like for students doing their first cadaver dissections. Holding our hand she explains the bodily process of death from dying to decomposition, her experience of facing death within her own family, the differing approaches certain countries have on handling of bodies after death, and the ethical decisions that come into forensic pathology. From a science perspective she focuses less on stories about how she established the cause of death (although there is a little of that) and more on the science around the information that can be taken from bones and tissue to try to identify remains. She takes us through her work on the back of a number of atrocities (such as Kosovo and the 2004 Tsunami), but throughout it's with utter respect to the deceased, and on these she talks more about the logistical difficulties of trying to do a forensic pathology job in foreign disaster or atrocity sites, keeping opportunities for sensationalism in check.

Black is clearly a no-nonsense Scot with a great sense of humour, and the writing in this memoir was terrific from start to finish. She perfects the balance between not dumbing down the science yet making it accessible, and lifts the curtain on this unusual yet fascinating career without taking her eye off her code of ethics along the way. There's more than a glimpse of ego along the way, but not enough to be off-putting.

4.5 stars - hugely interesting without in any way being macabre (well, maybe just a little in places). ( )